A small village, passed between Lakes Griffin and Harris, is now the county seat of Sumter county. About five miles above Lake Harris is Lake Dunham, the head of navigation of the Oklawaha. A settlement on this lake bearing the name Oklawaha is the terminus.
All this country south of Silver Spring Run is laid down quite incorrectly on all maps but the last edition of Mr. Drew’s “Map of Florida.”
7. FROM FERNANDINA TO CEDAR KEYS.
(Florida Railroad; distance 154 miles; time 11 hours, 30 min. Fare $11.00.)
The train, on leaving Fernandina, runs southward on Amelia Island, for about three miles, through a forest of pine and live oak with an undergrowth of myrtle and palmetto. The road then turns westward and crosses the salt marshes, and a narrow arm of the sea, the latter about twenty-five yards wide, which separate the island from the main. Beyond these, it enters the low pine lands of Nassau county. They are unproductive, thinly inhabited, and to the traveler extremely monotonous. The first station is Callahan (27 miles); the next Baldwin (Florida House), where a connection is made with the Pensacola and Georgia Railway for Tallahassee, Jacksonville, etc.
The country gradually rises and improves in quality of soil beyond this point, but houses continue sparse. The station next beyond is Trail Ridge (15 miles). Here the mail is delivered for Middleburg on Black Creek, twelve miles east. (See Route up the St. John.)
Much of the land is swampy, and the road crosses a number of small water courses, tributaries of Black Creek. The traveller is now approaching the Lake country of Central Florida. The succeeding small station, Waldo, (22 miles) is in the midst of a group of ponds, lakes and extensive swamps.
They are known as the Ettini ponds. They are separated by sand hills and stretches of fertile low-lands.